Most people see the journey to net zero and scopes 1 and 2 as being mainly about energy choices. But as more buildings fully electrify, there’s another major contributor that’s coming to the foreground – refrigerants.
Refrigerants are found in almost all forms of vapour compression technologies, including airconditioning, heat pumps, cool rooms, freezers, refrigerators, vehicle air conditioning, food transport vehicles and many industrial processes, including medical manufacturing.
According to the latest Cold Hard Facts Report produced by the expert group for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, direct emissions from refrigerants are estimated to be 6.9 megatonnes of CO2e annually. These direct emissions are the result of losses of refrigerant gases from equipment, machinery and along the supply chain. The estimate doesn’t include end-of-life, which is a whole other emissions problem.
While refrigerants with ozone-depleting potential are banned under the Montreal Protocol, and under the Kigali Amendment to that protocol, replacement refrigerants such as HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) are being phased down because of their high global warming potential (GWP).
Refrigerant leaks matter because they contribute to global warming, which in turn dials up the need for cooling.
The Cold Hard Facts report notes that refrigerants are the world’s fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) because demand for space cooling and refrigeration is growing so rapidly, while other emissions sources, such as coal-fired power generation, are decreasing.
“While direct emissions of refrigerant are a relatively small portion of total emissions from (refrigeration and airconditioning) technology, as the Australian electricity grid becomes less carbon intensive, the relative contribution of these direct emissions will increase,” the report states.
Why it matters
Scientifically, refrigerant leaks matter because they contribute to global warming, which in turn dials up the need for cooling, and the numbers are also relevant for business reporting under the Australian government’s mandatory climate impacts reporting scheme.
As Jeremy Mansfield, director of Mansfield Advisory, noted in a recent LinkedIn post, companies now need to track and report refrigerant leaks as part of the mandatory scope 1 emissions data, and they may need to report refrigerant emissions within scope 3 if buildings or equipment containing refrigerants forms part of the core reportable value chain.
For example, a property group’s emissions from RAC equipment in tenancies including hospitality, office or retail would potentially be material.
It’s a sneaky emissions source, and building owners and facilities managers need to start addressing them now.
AIRAH advocacy and policy manager Mark Vender tells The Fifth Estate that as more buildings electrify and switch off gas, refrigerants will become the primary source of scope 1 emissions.
Equipment that uses refrigerants is not “set and forget”, it needs to be installed, commissioned, installed and maintained properly.
“This delivers multiple benefits,” Vender tells The Fifth Estate. “There is a reduction in refrigerant leaks, the system will be more efficient, and if the equipment is running well, it lasts longer.”
That could mean instead of equipment with a 15-year lifespan, it lasts for 20 years, which is a saving in scope 3 embodied carbon for every year equipment doesn’t need to be swapped out.
“Plus, when we maintain airconditioning equipment, we’re talking about the air we breathe, which matters. Good maintenance improves indoor air quality,” Vender says.
“One of the big issues in IAQ is systems not being maintained, and that’s affecting the health of building occupants.”
AIRAH believes there is a huge opportunity to improve the maintenance of HVAC and refrigeration systems.
“It’s a straightforward way to make our buildings more sustainable, and we are not waiting for any special technology to enable the change – we can start today,” Vender said.
Natural versus synthetic refrigerants
Within the world of HVAC&R, the discussion has been bogged down in debates about natural versus synthetic refrigerants. Building owners don’t have clear directives on what needs doing, particularly for mid-tier buildings.
Unlike the UK and EU, where leak testing for commercial HVAC systems is mandatory, in Australia, there are no statutory requirements.
Better performance and reduced energy use
Executive director of Refrigerants Australia, Greg Picker, tells The Fifth Estate that while the HVAC&R sector has good data on what kind of refrigerants are coming into the country, and the industry has “moved well” in transitioning to lower GWP refrigerants, there is still room for improvement on refrigerant leakage.
A report commissioned by Refrigerants Australia and released in November 2024 shows that leakage from heating, ventilation, and airconditioning (HVAC) equipment has reduced markedly from 20 per cent in 2000 to less than five per cent today. This is due to improved practices, equipment and industry awareness.
Commercial refrigeration such as cool
Rooms in food and beverage premises and hotels remains problematic, with leakage rates at an average of 15 per cent annually.
However, commercial refrigeration such as cool rooms in food and beverage premises and hotels remains problematic, with leakage rates at an average of 15 per cent annually.
“We can do a whole lot better,” Picker says. “There have been significant improvements in everything except commercial refrigeration, which hasn’t improved as significantly as it can and should.”
Some HFCs that are still commonly used also have an unacceptably high GWP. R404A, for example, a hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) blend which is commonly used in commercial refrigeration systems, has a GWP of just under 4000.
Changing to lower GWP gases could help reduce the impact of leakage, Picker says, ideally, though, reducing the incidence of leaks is the best solution.
Equipment must be commissioned properly, Picker says, and people need to take appropriate care of systems.
In a commercial refrigeration system, where there are generally more connections than in a building air conditioning system, and where the system overall tends to work harder for more continuous operating hours, maintenance is critical.
“You have to pay attention,” Picker says.
“One of the things that isn’t well understood is that systems with suboptimal charge use more energy. They have to work harder, and there is a penalty for that.”
Refrigerant leaks literally cost money in energy use
Picker says there is a piece of research underway that is examining the energy penalties associated with average leak rates.
“By stopping leaks, you stop direct emissions and also indirect emissions from energy use.”
Leak rates, energy efficiency and performance are “all tied in together”.
Picker says the industry has been talking about mandatory leak testing as part of mandatory HVAC&R system maintenance for four to five years now.
All forms of cooling are responsible for around 20 per cent of the nation’s energy-related emissions, in addition to direct refrigerant emissions. Introducing standard practices that reduce leaks, which in turn reduce energy waste and improve performance, would constitute “wins that are no-regret measures,” Picker says.
Blind spots
Jeremy Mansfield, principal of Mansfield Advisory, describes refrigerants and reporting of their emissions impact as “blind spots on Australia’s road to net zero.”
The scope of the carbon risk associated with refrigerants is not fully visible, he says, because mandatory National Greenhouse Gas Reporting requirements do not capture everything.
“Everything under 100 kilograms of refrigerant is exempt from being reported,” Mansfield says.
“So even if you’ve got thousands of individual systems of units in retail and hospitality and residential and build to rent, (collectively) those multiple units would absolutely exceed the 100 kilograms threshold, but they’re actually not required to be reported, because the units themselves are less than 100 kilograms.”
In addition, refrigerants with a GWP of under 1000 also do not need to be reported, and the default leakage rates used across the industry to calculate emissions impacts risk inaccurate reporting using emissions estimates, not actuals, he says.
“If you look at what’s happening around some of the best practices in the world, whether that’s California and others, they started to become clear about mandating leak registers to provide and maintain records of these sources of emissions, because without doing so, you’re just making stuff up.”
Heat pumps with natural refrigerants, despite higher initial costs, will prevent stranded assets and deliver long-term benefits
Mansfield warns that the shift to electrification and heat pumps could increase reliance on fluorinated refrigerants, risking a future legacy issue. He says choosing heat pumps with natural refrigerants, despite higher initial costs, will prevent stranded assets and deliver long-term benefits.
“When you’ve dealt with renewables, and you have a green grid, and you’ve dealt with embodied carbon of the materials being produced, you are actually left with refrigerants as your legacy problem to deal with,” he says.
“The carbon bank of refrigerants is quite substantial and growing. And we also know that globally, it’s actually one of the most challenging ones to deal with.”
